Legislation

As the federal government shutdown continues into its third week, many in the affordable housing community have expressed concern about what it might mean for their programs. Vermont Housing Finance Agency will remain open throughout the shutdown. However, some of the federal program funding that VHFA and its partners administer may be affected if the shutdown persists.

The Vermont State Treasurer’s Office is now accepting local investment financing proposals in the areas of weatherization and housing improvement. Agencies, authorities, non-profits, municipalities, and housing organizations are eligible to apply.

A task force convened by the New Democrat Coalition, a group of moderate Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives, has found that housing is becoming increasingly unaffordable and unavailable for many Americans. In the report, Missing Millions of Homes, the Coalition linked the lack of affordable housing to a combination of wage stagnation and decreased construction.

Last week the Vermont House approved H. 922 which includes provisions from an earlier bill (H.766) that expands VHFA’s Down Payment Assistance Program. The bill is now passed over to the Senate and earlier this week was read and referred to the Senate Committee on Finance. Since the DPA program started in 2015, demand among qualified first-time home buyers has been twice what can be funded through the Vermont Affordable Housing Tax Credit, the program’s designated funding source.

Last week, the federal government passed an omnibus bill funding the government for FY 2018. Funding for housing and homeless assistance programs exceeded what housing advocates had anticipated. Among the spending is a substantial boost to the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program, which will see an increase of 12.5% to the annual state per capita credit allocation for the next four years. In addition, the bill contains $11.15 billion for project-based rental assistance, an increase of $50 million from FY 2017.

The Vermont Mayors Coalition (VMC) met at the State House yesterday to announce their legislative priorities for 2018. One of their primary goals was to increase the availability and quality of affordable housing. To that end, VMC supports a $125,000 tax credit increase for the Vermont Down Payment Assistance Program, which is administered by Vermont Housing Finance Agency.

The Vermont House Committee on General, Housing and Military Affairs is holding hearings on rental housing health and safety issues. The Committee will hear from tenants, advocates, and health and housing experts on their concerns regarding unsafe rental conditions and gaps in health code enforcement.

The federal tax reform conference report released Friday preserves tax-exempt private activity bonds (PABs), including Housing Bonds, both single-family (and MCCs) and multifamily, according to reports from the Novogradac and the National Council of State Housing Agencies. PAB uses, authority, and carryforward rules are all unchanged as is the low-income housing tax credit program, the organizations reported.

Housing partners seeking to improve opportunities for lower income Vermonters described this week why federal tax reform bills would make reaching this goal much harder and hurt Vermont communities. Learn more from these WPTZ and CCTV stories.